BookSurge Achieves Rapid Growth and Record Sales in 2004

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Press release from the issuing company

January 12, 2005 - Charleston, SC - BookSurge, the global leader in inventory-free book fulfillment and international distribution with print and sales facilities in ten countries, showed strong increases in key business areas in 2004.
During the 12-month period, overall company sales increased by nearly 60%, attributed to high quality standards in production and distribution, advanced technological capabilities, increased functionality of their Global Publishing System (GPS) and expanded product offerings. Actual book sales at BookSurge increased more than 100% in 2004.
International expansion efforts in Europe and Canada began to bear fruit in 2004, increasing revenue by more than 200%. New expansion facilities were announced in Australia, Greece, Poland, and in a separate announcement this week, the formation of BookSurge Panama. BookSurge Panama moves the company's global expansion plans forward in Central and South America and will provide additional capabilities in the collection, formatting, production and distribution of Spanish language books.
BookSurge's growth also included key strategic hires in 2004, luring industry professionals to its executive management team in the areas of finance, sales, marketing and information technology.
"We are extremely pleased with our growth results in 2004 and are on track to reach even greater results in 2005," said Robert Holt, CEO of BookSurge.
"Our vision is to grow our inventory-free book fulfillment and distribution network to 50 countries in a relatively short period of time, utilizing our cutting-edge software production platform, our expert staff and our outstanding partners worldwide."
BookSurge launched strategic agreements with leaders in areas of interest to their growth plans and industry innovation. Of note in 2004, Malloy, one of the largest complete book manufacturing companies in the country, chose BookSurge and its GPS platform to roll out short-run black and white
and color book production and international POD distribution services to its clients.
In a separate release this week, BookSurge and ebrary, a leading information services and technology provider headquartered in Palo Alto, California, also announced a strategic arrangement to produce a joint product focused on the library market worldwide.
The company's vision also includes the growth of its foreign language book collections to increase the availability and affordability of foreign language books globally. That vision was rewarded this year as its collection grew to encompass titles in more than 20 languages. Taking that one step further, BookSurge bolstered language preservation efforts in Europe, working with Fresian publishers to maintain classic and emerging books of the native language and improve access to Fresian titles. Efforts began this year to work with Basque publishers and to form a Dutch Book Club for Dutch language speakers across the globe.